Who Named The Animals In The Bible

How could Adam accept named all the animals in a single twenty-four hour period?

How could Adam have named millions of different species on Day 6 if it was only 24 hours? This is a common objection to a straightforward view of Genesis 1.

I important point is that we cannot be dogmatic on the actual number of species on Globe. Oxford University zoologist Robert May writes:

"At the purely factual level, we exercise not know to inside an order of magnitude how many species of plants and animals we share the globe with: fewer than 2 million are currently classified, and estimates of the total number range from under 5 1000000 to more than than 50 million." [Emphasis added]¹

There are several factors, which may non be immediately obvious to the casual reader, that need to be considered. Firstly, Adam did non take to go out and round up or rail any of these animals. Genesis 2:19 clearly states that God brought the animals to Adam. Secondly, although many objectors take claimed that the species Adam had to notice and name would take numbered in the millions, the actual number would virtually certainly accept been only a pocket-sized fraction of this.

Note that Scripture explicitly states that Adam named all the 'livestock' (Heb. behemah), the 'birds of the air' (Heb. oph hassamayim) and all the 'beasts of the field' (Heb. chayyah hassadeh). There is no indication that Adam named the fish in the sea, or whatever other marine organisms, nor any of the insects, beetles or arachnids. In fact, of the two 1000000 known species, 98% are invertebrates, which include a multifariousness of animals from sponges, worms and jellyfish, to mollusks and insects. The remaining two% are vertebrates and number approximately twoscore,000 species.ⁱⁱ This number is further reduced when the 25,000 marine vertebrates³ and iv thousand amphibians^four are discounted, since they clearly practice not fit into any of the categories of animals listed in Genesis ii:xx.

In addition, bold that speciation has been an on-going occurrence since Creation, the eleven thousand vertebrate species in question would have near likely descended from a much smaller number of proto-species. Each would exist the ancestors of animals in the group that taxonomists call a genus ⁵ (or possibly the college taxonomic guild known equally a family ⁶) and what the Genesis account calls a 'kind'.⁷ Since many genera incorporate dozens, even hundreds, of species, it is far more probable that Adam had to proper noun only a couple of thousand of these proto-species—a task which could easily have been achieved in a few hours. (Assuming Adam had to proper noun 2,500 proto-species (genera), and he named a single proto-species every 5 seconds, it would have taken him approximately three hours and forty-five minutes to complete the task if we include a five-infinitesimal break every hour.)

Information technology is of import to note that God'southward purpose in parading all the animals earlier Adam was not merely so that he would give them names. It was also to reinforce the fact that he was unlike in kind from the rest of creation, so that none of these animals could ever serve as a concrete, emotional, intellectual or spiritual companion. And so God made from Adam'south rib a companion who was suitable (Genesis 2:21–24).

References

1. May, R.M., How many species are there on Earth?, Scientific discipline 241(4872):1441–1449, 1988 | doi: 10.1126/science.241.4872.1441. Return to text.
2. Burnie, D., 'Animal', Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2002, encarta.msn.com. Render to text.
3. Orr, J.W., 'Fish', Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2002, encarta.msn.com. Return to text.
4. Burnie, D., 'Vertebrate', Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2002, encarta.msn.com. Render to text.
5. Woodmorappe, J, Noah'south Ark: A Feasibility Study, ICR, El Cajon, CA, USA, 1996. This tabulates all the creatures on the Ark past assuming that the kind corresponded to today's genera. Only this is to be as generous to the skeptics as possible, and even and then at that place would exist only 16,000 animals on the Ark as obligate passengers. Return to text.
6. Batten, D., Ligers and Wholphins? What next?, Cosmos 22(iii):28–33, 2000; creation.com/liger. This points out several examples of fertile hybrids between members of different genera with a family unit. This means that they are really a single polytypic species, and supports identification of the kind with today's families. Return to text.
7. Williams, P.J., What does min mean?, J. Creation 11(3):344–352, 1997. Return to text.

Source: https://creation.com/how-could-adam-have-named-all-the-animals-in-a-single-day

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